Notable notes and quotable quotes from Thursday's 4-2 loss to the Panthers

NOTABLE NOTES AND QUOTABLE QUOTES FROM THURSDAY’S 4-2 LOSS TO THE FLORIDA PANTHERS

INJURY UPDATE: Mika Zibanejad left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury. And that was all coach Paul MacLean could say about it in his post-game news conference.
He said Zibanejad will be evaluated on Friday and the team will go from there.
Asked if this could be related to the concussions problems Zibanejad has had in the past, MacLean said all he knew was that it was an upper-body injury.

With only three wins in their last nine games, the Senators are struggling to get back into the playoff race. But despite the poor results, it’s not a time to panic, according to Kyle Turris:

“No. We have a good group. It’s been a tough stretch. We’ve been very inconsistent. We’ve played one good game, one bad game, a couple of bad games. Obviously everybody knows we haven’t played our best hockey.
“But you look at it – I think going into the night we were two points out of the playoffs and we haven’t played very well.
“Obviously we’re all trying to fix everything that’s going on with this team. But there’s a lot of season left, and to be two points out, no, I wouldn’t say panic.
“I would say we’ve got to come back, we’ve got to get together, and figure this out, and we will.
“We’re going to pull this together and figure it out.”

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Fatigue, from having played Wednesday in New Jersey, didn’t play a part in Ottawa’s loss, said Turris.

“This time of year you can use a lot of excuses. Everybody on every team is hurting, sick or tired. That’s not an excuse.
“We’ve got to come out and find ways to win, especially on home ice, and after a bad game (like Wednesday’s). We’ve got to find a way to close it out.”

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While Spezza’s first-period power-play goal was one of the prettier ones he’s scored in his career, he wasn’t too impressed when asked about it after the game. The loss was weighing too heavy on him.
“It doesn’t count worth (expletive),” he said.

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Coach Paul MacLean was pleased with the effort but said getting the result is what matters.

“I thought we had a good response from (Wednesday’s) game. We had the lead at 2-1. I think losing Zibanejad hurt our lineup, and I think the schedule fatigued us a little bit.
“But to their credit they continued to come after us and we played a little too much in our end and it caused us a little more fatigue.
“But at the end of day it’s a tie game going into the third, and we take a penalty late, and they do a good job.
“I thought the response from the team was a response.
“Now we didn’t win the game, so it’s obviously not what we were looking for. But it was a response, and a place to start.”